Fish mortality in Rhine due to high water temperature

bern - The high temperatures have led to fish mortality in the Hoogrijn. The Swiss fisheries organization SFV reports that about a ton of dead fish was removed from the water last weekend.

The water temperatures have risen to above 27 degrees in some places. This can have dramatic consequences for, for example, flag salmon, which prefer temperatures below 23 degrees. During the extremely hot summer of 2003 at least 50,000 of those fish were killed in the Rhine.

The Swiss authorities had already taken precautionary measures in July. Between the Lake Constance and the city of Schaffhausen, which is located on the Rhine, cooling water basins have been installed. Thousands of fish gathered there before.